Ciudad Acuña, a tiny town on the Mexican side of Del Rio, Texas, has been in the news regularly because of drug-related violence. The town, resides in the state of Coahuila, which has been dominated by the ultra-violent Zetas. A competing organised crime group, the Sinaloa Cartel has been trying to take control of this territory in recent months, creating a surge of violence. Just last October, Jose Eduardo Moreira Rodriguez, the son of Humberto Moreira, a high-ranking politician from the Partido Institucional Revolucionario (PRI) and former governor of the state of Cohauila was kidnapped and killed, a drug cartel with the cooperation of a top police official.

But police in this city have decided to focus on a more serious threat — miniskirts. General Javier Aguayo y Camargo, head of public security in this embattled border town and a retired army brigadier, has ordered a ban on women and men wearing miniskirts, imposing an 800 peso fine (about £42) on those who disobey.

He said the bill was aimed at transvestites and prostitutes, rather than women in general. Wearing miniskirts, according to Agudelo, violates the decency and well being of residents of Ciudad Acua, and can also be used to “commit several sorts of crimes,” including luring kidnapping victims, and men using bathrooms intended for the opposite sex.

The police will allow prostitutes to wear mini skirts and other tiny attire in the red light district. But if they attempt to venture into downtown areas dressed in such a manner, they will be taken to jail for up to 36 hours, said local police.

About 50 people have been taken to jail since the edict was put into motion a few weeks ago. Aguayo y Camargo has deflected criticism, saying he is only following the law under Article 42 of the Public Morality code.

The second largest country in Latin America after Brazil, Mexico has the 14th largest economy in the world. The country has been shaken by the growth of powerful drug cartels that have wreaked havoc in Mexico’s regions.

The cartels have an insidious impact on civil society. A study by the Fundación de Periodismo de Investigación (MEPI) of 11 drug-affected provinces – almost half of Mexico’s state territories – found that newspapers report only three out of ten drug-related news stories, if not fewer. There is little official censorship, although press freedom at the state level is controlled by financial restraints, as the provincial press depend on state advertising.

I have been a journalist for three decades, in the 1980s I reported on Central America and its civil wars. In the 1990s I covered Colombia for US news outlets and since 1993, when I left daily journalism, I have focused on investigative journalism projects. I worked first for the New York based Committee to Protect Journalists and then moved to the Open Society Institute of West Africa, where I helped set up a media assistance project in Guinea Bissau. In 2007 I came to Mexico as a Knight international Fellow to train local newsrooms.

In January 2010 with the help of other journalists and editors I launched the Fundación de Periodismo de Investigación (MEPI) launched to promote investigations and work with journalists in the US, Mexico and Central America